Walking the edge

Young Chang

Colette Searls isn’t typically one to take on a musical, but when the

UC Irvine graduate student and director heard that playwright Maria Irene

Fornes’ “Promenade” was being considered for production, she paid

attention.

“I’m a big Irene Fornes fan,” Searls said. “Irene is so alternative

that I thought, ‘Wow, if she’s doing a musical it must be really

different.”’

In its avant-garde, kooky ‘60s-musical sort of way, “Promenade” offers

a look at the world through two prisoners’ eyes.

The show, to be staged by UC Irvine’s theater department in the Studio

Theater, is about two inmates named 105 and 106 who escape their cells

only to willingly return.

They explore the society they’re not supposed to join and meet with

disillusionment and cruelty.

“Instead of being evil characters, they’re extremely innocent,” Searls

said. “They find out where evil comes from and what there is to do and

see. They’re protagonists.”

In a nondescript black-box theater, 105 and 106 offer a critique of

the mentality of the wealthy, the objectification of women, the

entertainment industry and political leaders, to name a few topics.

“It’s not a very plot-driven show,” Searls said. “They find the world

to be fairly contradicting and cruel, and they, in the end, learn that

what they care about is being alive and having compassion.”

Fornes, a New York-based Cuban American and a multiple-time winner of

the Obie Award, is also known for her plays “The Danube,” “Mud” and “The

Conduct of Life” -- shows that are all on the outskirts of mainstream

theater.

Phil Thompson, an assistant professor at UCI’s drama department and

voice and speech director for “Promenade,” calls the show’s script and

scores “rather strange.”

“The language is, I’d say, poetic, but it’s very important that the

audience understands immediately what the words are,” he said. “The words

pose a challenge simply to decipher.”

The music in “Promenade” is appropriately eclectic.

“Some of it is very typical musical theater, but it sort of makes fun

of musical theater,” Searls said. “There are really fun musical numbers

that turn on their own heads -- that are fun but sort of have a dark

twist.”

As a director, Searls said one of her challenges was searching for

where the twists happen both musically and in the characters.

“And we’re dealing with it in a special way,” she said.

To get a cozier effect, musical director Dennis Castellano and Searls

decided to put a live band on stage instead of going for the orchestra

pit. The sound is acoustic, without amplification, but the effect works

as the music travels sufficiently through the Studio Theater’s limited

space.

“I really like intimate theater,” Searls said.

FYI

* What: “Promenade”

* When: 2 and 8 p.m. today and March 9; 8 p.m. March 7 and 8

* Where: UC Irvine’s Studio Theater. The university is at the

intersection of Campus and University drives

* Cost: $10, $8 or $7

* Call: (949) 824-2787